Eyvind Earle is one of my favorite artists. Simultaneously graphic and fantastical, vibrant and understated, his life work includes iconic backgrounds of Disney classics such as Sleeping Beauty and Lady and the Tramp, experimental silkscreen prints, and haunting oil landscapes. Awaking Beauty: The Art of Eyvind Earle is a beautiful curation of a fraction of his work.
In 1937, when Eyvind was just twenty-one, he undertook a cross-country trip on his bicycle. Leaving from Hollywood, California, it took him just forty-five days to reach Monroe, New York. Along the way, he stopped to paint forty-two watercolors, some of which he sold along the way for food and supplies. Eyvind also kept a journal, which he later expanded to become Horizon Bound on a Bicycle: The Autobiography of Eyvind Earle.
Two years later, he founded a Christmas card business with a family friend, working out of Connecticut. In 1943 though, Eyvind was drafted into the U.S. Navy, painting in his two years of service over 200 portraits of fellow sailors, and keeping some freelance Christmas card clients too. But it wasn't until 1950, when he finally was hired after several attempts by Disney studios, that Eyvind was financially secure to create his art and support his family.
Two years later, he founded a Christmas card business with a family friend, working out of Connecticut. In 1943 though, Eyvind was drafted into the U.S. Navy, painting in his two years of service over 200 portraits of fellow sailors, and keeping some freelance Christmas card clients too. But it wasn't until 1950, when he finally was hired after several attempts by Disney studios, that Eyvind was financially secure to create his art and support his family.
DISNEY &
SLEEPING BEAUTY
| "I consider my six or seven years at Disney's the greatest art school in the world...There is no other place where such a vast number of the very best artists all worked in the same studio." — Eyvind Earle |
Details from a Background painting for Sleeping Beauty c. 1959
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| Concept painting c. 1959 | Concept painting c. 1959 |
Concept Painting c. 1959
Concept painting for Lady and the Tramp c. 1955
Later Work
In 1959, Eyvind left The Walt Disney Studios to pursue more commercial work, and experiment with new animation techniques, sculpture, silkscreen printing, serigraphs, scratchboards and other media. I love most his oil paintings, which he returned to full time in 1966.
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| Through the Fog, 1977 Serigraph | Hillside Magic, 1976 Oil on Masonite |
| "Beauty is the thing we are all searching for...Whatever beauty is, I feel it, and as long as I can I shall try to find more and more beauty, and to put it down so others can see what I have seen." — Eyvind Earle (1916 - 2000) |
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